and seven hours till the united states formally goes over that fiscal cliff. a still combative president obama says an agreement is in sight and the senate leader mitch mcconnell says it's close as well. house republicans have decided they will not vote until after taxes have already gone up. they're supposed to go up after midnight. we have complete coverage of this breaking news story as well. let's begin this hour with our senior congressional correspondent dana bash. as we've been saying, we are going over the fiscal cliff. >> reporter: technically, that is true. house has decided that there's no point, from the perspective of republicans who run the house, to stay tonight, because the plan over the past two, three days, has been for the senate, which is down the hall behind me, tore vote on any kind of deal first, and then send it to the house. the senate isn't there yet. they're very close. but close doesn't give a bill to the people who need to write it and put it on the floor for votes. so that's the reason why house republicans decided they would just